h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Comments, in a relatively random order:

1) I may well make my biology students read this, as this is what I was *hoping* to get from them when I assigned an essay earlier in the semester on beneficial bacteria. You would not believe the that was handed in. *sigh* The students are actually quite decent at memorizing the vocabularies and structures and whatnot, but asking them to actually research and synthesize and write is really beyond what they're willing to do (although not beyond they're capabilities -- they're all quite brilliant kids).

2) Per EG guidelines, all footnotes should be complete sentences.

3) In this sentence: "Technically speaking, E. coli is a Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic bacterium in the family Enterobacteriaceae." I think it's also whether mentioning E. coli is a rod, coccus, or spirogizmo.

4) It might also be worth mentioning that a new treatment is currently being developed for the nasty type of E. coli infections, which involves using targeted bacteriophages instead of antibiotics. Animal trials have been hugely successful have at least 2 universities that I know of, and I believe human trials are being planned (may already be underway, but I don't think so yet). Anyway, this route gets around some of the problems with the interactions between the antibiotics and toxin production in E.coli. People seem very excited about this -- the old way of using bacteriophages wouldn't work on a large scale, but they seem to have gotten around that.

5) In the normal gut flora section, I definitely think it's worth mentioning that E. coli is the main reason poop smells the way it does. People clearly need to know these things. Anyway, this is why babies' diapers smell different when they are on antibiotics -- and (of course they are then prone to antibiotic-associated diarrhea from rotavirus and the like).

6) "Those who do not have these bacteria helping them digest their milk are thus lactose-intolerant." Sorry, but I don't believe that the lack of bacteria is the sole reason for lactose-intolerance. If it was, it wouldn't be that difficult to establish the correct microflora into people to make them lactose-tolerant -- after all, we give people brand new GI flora all the time after surgeries and immunosuppresions and whatnot. There are also genetic factors involved, as I recall.

oops... you mean to say we failed to mention that e. coli was rod-shaped? oh dear...

maybe we could change "Those who do not have these bacteria helping them digest their milk are thus lactose-intolerant" to "these microbes help confer lactose-tolerancealthough genetic predisposition also plays a role in determining if a person is lactose-tolerant or otherwise</footnote", or just omit the sentence altogether? although i do have this friend who, when she goes on antibiotics (which is pretty often, mind you), becomes intolerant to lactose for several weeks, so i think the microbes play a pretty big role, even if they are not the only factor influencing lactose-intolerance.

thanks for your !

(i also find it terribly interesting how they're supposedly developing new bioweapons - i don't know if they've actually *done* this, or if it's all still theory - using a combination of viruses and bacteria. hide the viruses in pathogenic bacteria, and infect the host. when host tries to kill off bacteria using antibiotics, host ruptures bacterial cells, releasing viruses. pretty cool, that. any news about that?)

Thanks Stratagenius V


An entry about the whole GE debate, eh Recumbentman? That might be worth a shot, especially as the furore has died down somewhat of late.


summerbayexile: You had a done of O157, did you? Nasty, good to see you up and about. Regarding the meningitis comment, you are absolutely correct. I'll remedy that right away. I've reworked the entire Meningitis section slightly too. Thanks for your input.


Thanks for the comments Mikey, I'll have to deal with them tomorrow. Movies await!


Ste

Busy weekend. Just dashed in to clear up Mikey's well-spotted points on the entry:

1) Yeah! Get the biology students to read my entry! I'd get such a kick out of that, as I'm sure Farly would.

2) Footnotes complete sentences. You're right. Alrighty, I'll get onto it. Changed some, removed one (the sulphur reference, couldn't reword it).

3) Added 'rod-shaped' to the intro.

4) I heard about the Soviets having a rather advanced phage research programme up and running. Facinating stuff. I'm not sure if the entry can squeeze that information in, IMO it's a little on the big size. It might merit a whole entry by itself.

5) People have the right, no..., the *need* to know such vital information. I shall add it in forthwith.

6) Changed the lactose-intolerant part, as Farly suggested.

Thank you!

Ste

Another quickie:

In the natural gut flora bit --

"they even inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria by secreting various substances that are toxic non-indigenous bacteria"

I think is supposed to be....

"they even inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria by secreting various substances that are toxic to non-indigenous bacteria"

It took me awhile to figure out what that sentence meant until I mentally added in the missing preposition.

Ah! Those ones are always the hardest to spot. Your brain just reads through it. Well, mine does.

Thanks again,

Ste

i just zipped right past that as well now that you mention it, though, it *is* pretty funny...

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Well done you two,
In honour of the little bug(ger) this is my first accepted recommendation as a scout. Really pleased for both of you.
sbe

Thanks!

Ste

thanks, you lot! 'specially the scout who picked this!

Hi everyone ,

I'm the sub-editor for this entry. The recommended version is located at A1061308. I'll post here with details of any major changes that I have, and if I, you, or anyone else has questions, please post them here .

This is #2 in my Sub-editing queue. I think that I'll be ready to start on it in less than a week. In the meantime, if anyone has any questions, comments, or whatever, post away .

Robert

Hi Robert

Whist you're subediting, do you think you could record all of the changes you make so we can comment/disagree/agree on them?



Ste

and while we're at it, provide a padded cell and padded paddles so that we don't actually *injure* ourselves when bopping each other on the head? lol, i'm just kidding!

, will do, Ste

Maybe you should write up a `Feature Suggestion' about it, Farlander .

Robert

about what, robert? suggest to the italics they create cyberspace soundproof padded rooms to toss the writers and their subeditors into while the editing process is taking place?

don't mind me - i'm still high on the caffeine from my coffee...

anyway, good to be working with you

I was thinking that you'd be the only one in the padded room. I'm as sane as the rest of h2g2 .

` I think that I'll be ready to start on it in less than a week. '

Completly forgetting my schedule for this week. Make that starting on Friday or something . Like I told Ste, Finals week this week .

no prob. better work on your exam first, or you'll have us to blame for writing 'i am a fish' on your exam paper (rd reference)